Killer says judge erred in blaming him for second slaying

A lawyer for a man convicted of first-degree murder says a B.C. Supreme Court judge mistakenly blamed his client for a second slaying in rejecting his bid for a faint hope hearing last year.

And Brent Anderson argued before the B.C. Court of Appeal Friday that because of the “error in law,” killer Robbie Soomel should have his application for the hearing before a jury reconsidered.

In December 2018, Justice George Macintosh ruled against the special hearing for Soomel, saying that there was no “reasonable prospect” that a jury would vote unanimously to lower Soomel’s parole ineligibility period because of his violent history.

“I do not believe a jury voting unanimously could get past the fact that Mr. Soomel killed two times, once in the first-degree murder he orchestrated, and the other in the conspiracy to gun down a man in front of his girlfriend,” Macintosh said.

Soomel was convicted of the first-degree murder of friendturned-drug trade rival Gurpreet Sohi, who was shot to death in a Delta basement suite in September 2000.

And he pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit murder for assisting with the contracted killing of Jason Herle in Abbotsford in 1997.

Soomel was not convicted of killing “two times” as Macintosh said, Anderson told Justices Lauri Ann Fenlon, Peter Willcock and Gregory Fitch.

He said that Macintosh adopted the position of Crown at last year’s hearing, who repeatedly blamed Soomel for two murders, when he was only convicted of one.

“The reason why he got it wrong is because the Crown vociferously and repeatedly urged the trial judge to draw the wrong legal inference from that fact,” Anderson said.

“And unfortunately the screening judge adopted that argument in my submission.”

Prosecutor Lesley Ruzicka argued Friday that Macintosh made no error when he ruled against Soomel’s application.

She said the judge clearly referenced the two distinct convictions — one for murder and one for conspiracy — involving two victims.

And she said that Macintosh weighed all the factors in Soomel’s history, including his poor behaviour inside federal prison during the first decade of his sentence.

The Appeal Court justices reserved their decision.